'I got death threats when men thought I put feminist gesture in video game'
It was late at night, and Darim's animation studio had just finished designing a new look for a character in one of South Korea's most popular video games, MapleStory.
Darim was proud of her work. So, sitting alone on the floor of her small studio apartment, she posted the trailer on social media. Almost immediately, she was flooded with thousands of abusive messages, including death and rape threats.
Young male gamers had taken issue with a single frame in the trailer, in which the female character could be seen holding her thumb and forefinger close together.
They thought it resembled a hand gesture used by a radical online feminist community almost a decade ago to poke fun at the size of Korean men's penises.
"There were insults I'd never heard before, they were disgusting and inhumane," said Darim, which is not her real name. One read: "You've just sabotaged your job."
Messages then started piling into Darim's studio and the game developer claiming she was a feminist and demanding she be fired. Within hours, the company pulled the promotional video.
Darim had become the latest victim in a series of vicious online witch hunts, in which men in South Korea attack women they suspect of having feminist views. They bombard them with abuse and try to get them sacked.
This is part of a growing backlash to feminism, in which feminists have been branded man-haters who deserve to be punished. The witch hunts are having a chilling effect on women, with many now scared to admit they are feminists.
This is forcing the movement underground, in a country where gender discrimination is still deeply entrenched. South Korea has the largest gender pay gap in the OECD, a group of the world's rich countries.
... similar witch hunts have worked, in the gaming industry and beyond, and they are becoming more frequent. In one case, a young illustrator lost her job after a handful of disgruntled gamers stormed the company's office demanding she be removed.
And it is not just Korean companies that have capitulated. Last year, the international car maker Renault suspended one of its female employees after she was accused of making the finger-pinching gesture while moving her hands in a promotional presentation....
Because the companies are folding to these baseless accusations, the instigators of these hunts have become emboldened, he said. "They are confident now that when you accuse someone of feminism, you can ruin their career."
... The backlash began in the mid-2010s, following a surge of feminist activism. During this time, women took to the streets in protest at sexual violence and the widespread use of hidden cameras that secretly film women using toilets and changing rooms - around 5,000 to 6,000 cases are reported annually.
"Young men saw women becoming vocal and were threatened by their rise," said Myungji Yang, a professor of sociology at the University of Hawai'i Manoa, who has interviewed dozens of young Korean men....
There is evidence the authorities are also capitulating to the anti-feminists' demands. When Darim reported her abuse to the police, they refused to take her case.
They said because the finger-pinching gesture was taboo, it was "logical" that she, as a feminist, had been attacked. "I was astonished," she said. "Why would the authorities not protect me?"
... The case left Darim's lawyer, Yu-kyung Beom, dumbfounded. "If you want to say that you're a feminist in South Korea, you have to be very brave or insane," she said....
Such harassment is proving effective. Last year, a pair of scholars coined the phrase "quiet feminism", to describe the impact of what they say is a "pervasive everyday backlash".
Gowoon Jung and Minyoung Moon found that although women held feminist beliefs they did not feel safe disclosing them in public. Women I spoke to said they were even afraid to cut their hair short, while others said feminism had become so synonymous with hating men they did not associate with the cause.
A 2024 IPSOS poll of 31 countries found only 24% of women in South Korea defined themselves as feminist, compared to an average of 45%, and down from 33% in 2019.
Prof Kim worries the consequences will be severe. By being forced to conceal their feminist values, she argues women are being stripped of their ability to fight against gender inequality, which penetrates workplaces, politics and public life....
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